Pretty on the Inside

The title for this post comes from a song by one of our favorite bands, Ceann.  The dishes in this post might not look like they're worth your time (I'm a cook, not a photographer...) but they are delicious!  The first is a favorite from my childhood, despite the fact that it contains mushrooms, and the second is one that, apparently, was part of everybody else's childhood but I've never had before.


Mom's Beef Stroganoff
Adapted from: My mom's recipe
Grade: A!  Easy as any pasta sauce, but with a wonderful velvety texture.  Perfect comfort food.

Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
Adapted from: The Joy of Cooking
Grade: B+  Surprisingly good flavor, but a little labor intensive.

Mom's Beef Stroganoff

3/4 lb white button mushrooms, sliced
3/4 minced onion
3 tbsp butter
1 lb ground beef
1 can (10.5 oz) condensed beef broth (I didn't have this on hand so I disolved a cube of chicken bullion in 10 oz water)
2 tbs ketchup
1 clove garlic, minced
1 1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp flour
1 cup sour cream (I also didn't have this on hand - instead, used 3/4 cup + 2tbsp plain yogurt + 3 tbsp butter + pinch of sugar to taste)

Sautee the mushrooms, onion, and 3tbsp butter on medium heat until onions are translucent and mushrooms are soft.  Remove and set aside.  Brown the meat and drain the fat, then add in garlic, salt, ketchup and 2/3 of the broth and simmer covered for 15 minutes (medium heat or so).  In a small bowl, blend the remaining broth with the flour (add one tbsp at a time, stirring constantly to keep a smooth texture).  Add the flour/broth mixture, as well as the cooked onions and mushrooms, to the pan and cook on medium high heat (boiling) for 2 minutes (I found I only needed about 45sec-1 min), stirring constantly.  Stir in the sour cream (or yogurt, butter and sugar).  This was always served over egg noodles in my house, but I didn't have those either so it went onto regular spaghetti.  Scrumptious!!



Stuffed Cabbage Rolls
We got a head of Savoy cabbage in our Boston Organics box last week and I didn't know what the heck to do with it, since neither of us really like cabbage.  But we both loved this dish!  Although, next time I make this, I'm not going to bother peeling off all those leaves, but just do what they did on Iron Chef tonight, and stuff the entire cabbage head!

For the cabbage leaves:

16 quarts water
1 1/2 tbsp salt
1 head Savoy cabbage

For the filling:
1 lb ground beef
1 egg
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup white rice (I only had brown)
1/2 cup water
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced (oh please, we never use just 1 - 3 at least!)
salt and ground pepper

For the sauce:
3 tbsp vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 cup dry white wine (always Pinot Grigio at my house)
2 cans diced tomatoes
1 cup water
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
8 gingersnaps (I used a pinch of ginger and some sugar)
juice from 1 lemon
2 chunks sour salt (okay, I don't even know what this is so I obviously didn't have it on hand, but the cookbook says it's citric acid so I just put in extra lemon juice).

Bring the water and salt to a boil.  Cut the core out of the cabbage (don't cut the cabbage in half to do this like I did!  You end up with smaller leaves to stuff) and place the head in the boiling water, stem sides of the leaves down.  Boil ~5 minutes, then remove the outer leaves.  Repeat this until you get most of the good leaves, then soften the remaining cabbage for use in the sauce.  I laid the leaves out on a hand towel to dry/cool, and you're also supposed to cut out the spine - I manged this for some, but ended up losing a few leaves...

Mix the filling ingredients in a bowl and combine with your hands - it's the only way for meatball-type fillings, in my opinion.  Spoon about 1tbsp of filling into the base of a leaf, fold the right side of the lef over, roll up, then fold the left side of the leaf in.  That's about as well as I can describe it because I didn't really get it myself and my rolls weren't too much to marvel at...

Chop up the remaining cabbage and heat it with the oil and onion in a pot.  Cook over medium heat until golden-brown, then add the wine.  Simmer on low heat for 5 minutes and add the rest of the sauce ingredients.  Bring the sauce to a boil, then add the rolls seam side down.  Add water as needed to cover the rolls.  Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours on med-low heat, shaking the pan every 30 minutes to prevent sticking.

The good thing about this recipe is it made a lot of rolls, so we had dinner and lunches for a few days from all our efforts.